Miliband stands firm on Europe

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has faced down demands for a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty and defended the importance of the European Union to Britain.

Mr Miliband was speaking at the Labour conference in Bournemouth as calls for a referendum from opposition parties and parts of the press grow louder.

He insisted the treaty agreed in Brussels in June did not contain the kind of fundamental constitutional changes which would require a national vote of the kind promised by Tony Blair on the previous Constitutional Treaty.

And he warned that any further wrangling over reform of the EU's structures would lead to years of "institutional navel-gazing" which would distract Europe from the challenges facing it.

Mr Miliband said eight members of the Conservative shadow cabinet voted against a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.

"The EU, for all the attacks on it, is one institution we need today," he said.

"The European Arrest Warrant snared the July 21 bomber. European commitments are leading the fight against climate change.

"Europe needs to look out, not in, to the problems beyond its borders that define insecurity within our borders. It doesn't need institutional navel-gazing and that is why the Reform Treaty abandons constitutional reform and offers clear protections for national sovereignty.

"It should be studied and passed by Parliament. And to every Tory MP we should say: There are eight members of your shadow cabinet who voted against a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.

"Europe has divided them for 15 years and it's not going to divide us."

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